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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Late to the Party and Still Lookin' Good: It's the Lollipop Chainsaw Massacre!

Once upon a time, way back in the early 21st century, game developers were known for releasing way too many titles with the same theme in an attempt to cash in on the current fad. This really isn't exclusive to the gaming industry, but right now, we don't care about the other ones. Anyways, at some point in the later half of the earliest decade of the newest century, there came a vampire fad, brought on by legions of moronic girls who seemed to think that vampires sparkled when the sun hit them. This fad was shortly followed by a series of other, smaller, night creature fads, such as werewolves, demons, and Frankenstein's. Unfortunately, incubi and succubi were both absent from this horde of melodrama.

Enter the zombies, arguably proving that vampires were just rolling out the red carpet for their more shuffle-footed friends. The undead walked the streets, as well as the local GameStop, Barnes & Noble, and Blockbuster with such numbers that they overwhelmed nearly everything else. Zombies showed up in SciFi, they showed up in Historical Fiction, they showed up in Urban Fantasy, and they showed up in a lot of other places that they really didn't belong. It quickly became an eye sore, even to hardcore zombie fetishists.

The corporations soon began to feel the sting of consumer boredom as zombies became more used than Lindsay Lohan. Like with all fads, a few gems still held a special place in the hearts of many. The Left 4 Dead pair of games, and 2009's Zombieland would not soon lose their luster, but the ill-fated Marvel Zombies series had long ago wore out its welcome. The industry began to redie once again.

Or so we thought...

...but Suda51 just had to be a dick.

Grasshopper Manufacture, the brave souls that brought us the beautiful masterwork that is No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2, have ventured into the realm of female protagonists and zombie survival in the same game. One can only speculate at how much awesome this game is going to be. Right now we only have a small trailer to go on, and only a small bit of gameplay, but it's a sweet, sweet trailer.

What we see here is a sexy version of Kim Possible, but blond so immediately hotter, holding a chainsaw, and mowing down zombies like she's being graded on it. Which she probably is, knowing Suda51's track record for the absurd. The game looks like it'll play something like No More Heroes, though I'm willing to guess that Juliet (that fox you just watched for two minutes) is going to be moving a little more slowly than Travis Touchdown. Although maybe her athletic abilities will provide the game with some agile play. You can never really tell what Suda will do, because his characters always have weapons that would normally work against their wielder's physical attributes, only to pay off in awesome ways.

For anybody looking for a "strong, female protagonist without the sex appeal" you clearly aren't going to find that here. Lollipop Chainsaw is looking to be like a higher quality Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers. Much, much higher quality. Of course, that means girls, guts, and explosions. The only other thing any guy could ask of this game would be a strong, coherent, put together plot.

Fat chance.

Despite the vulgarity and weak story telling in the majority of Suda51's previous works, they have always been on the front lines in terms of fulfilling the most important aspect of a game: being fun to play. Always original, even when they're cliche, just about any game that Suda51 has had a hand in has been a major success, if not financially than definitely in being an enjoyable ten hour stint. I'm a huge fan of cheerleaders, No More Heroes, and zombies, and I'm definitely going to be picking up Lollipop Chainsaw when it hits shelves.